“Mary Poppins You Say”

by soulhappy on November 16, 2010

It’s been awhile since I watched Mary Poppins and yet I think we would be kindred spirits. There are some ways in which we are not alike. For instance I have no desire whatsoever to wear a dress every day let alone bloomers. I am probably not as cheerful as MP is either. I don’t think I quite measure up on the self -esteem scale either — my tape measure does NOT tell me that I’m “practically perfect in every way”.

In some very important ways we are very much alike. For instance – I love to sing a silly song. I have no problem bursting into the work day with a chipper rendition of “Good Morning Little Pollywog” all the while getting piercing-evil-dagger-eye looks from my co-w0rkers. I like to think of it as my own little version of “A Spoon Full of Sugar”. It’s even better if the song gets stuck in their heads all day (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious) HA! Admit it – that song is at this very moment running through your head. But mostly it’s her bag! That beautiful, LARGE, wonderful bag!

Her bag has everything that one could ever need. I have tried to model my own bag, purse, tote after hers. My motto is “if I don’t have it — you don’t need it”. Need some dental floss — I’ve got it. Tweezers? Yup. Band-aid? Got you covered. The thing Mary Poppins doesn’t tell you is that the bag gets awfully heavy at times. I have had to downsize more than once. But then I discovered that car trunk is only an extension of my purse. If it’s not in my purse — YES — It IS in my trunk. You need a zip-lock bag? Just one moment I’ll get you one from my Mary Poppins trunk. Water? Snack? Duct Tape? Tent? Feminine Supplies? You are in luck — because I’ve got it.

Here’s an example of how my magic bag/trunk worked just yesterday. My sweet friend at church at times lets me take her almost-no-longer-a-baby child to Relief Society with me so I can “watch” her while she and her husband attend to their other church duties. Usually she eats her little Goldfish Cracker snacks, takes a drink, and then zonks out for the rest of the meeting. But yesterday – there were no crackers in her bag. Just as she is crying for her dad I say to her “lets go see what’s in my magic trunk”. We go out to my trunk and what do you know . . . I have a container of apple flavored infant puff cereal. Now if I was a young mother of toddlers this wouldn’t be unusual — but I’m not — nor have I ever been. But there they were in my trunk just waiting to be pulled out at the perfect time for the perfect person. I closed up my magic carpet bag trunk and we went back in to church. She had her little snack, a drink of water, and then she promptly fell asleep on my shoulder. There is nothing better for the soul than holding a sleeping baby — and honestly I think that is the real magic.

Never judge things by their appearances, even carpetbags. I’m sure I never do. -Mary Poppins